I’m a skeptic. I’m not into the latest diet craze, exercise routine, electronic device or trendy clothing designer. I don’t own a purse that costs more than the monthly home mortgage. But I am into science and I love what research continues to teach us...
Yoga for Conscious Eating, Active Living and Habit Change Can the tools of yoga help us change our habits? Yoga is a powerful practice for transformation and change. The tools of yoga can be applied in specific ways to help us strengthen will and change habits...
Con·tent·ment noun\kən-ˈtent-mənt\ the state of being happy and satisfied : the state of being content We all want happiness and contentment. My teacher, Gary Kraftsow, says that santosha, the Sanskrit word for contentment, is “the way you take experience.” It’s an internal state of mind and attitude that...
The skeleton is an amazing chassis, the support structure for movement and a protector of our internal organs and glands. Just like a car chassis, we may start out with our own unique skeletal attributes and over the years add wear and tear. Upper back...
The promise of delicious, sweet heirloom tomatoes, the delight of a rich palette of coneflowers, and the smell of baked squash…it’s within reach now that the days are longer, the nights milder and the temperatures are rising. To the gardener, it’s a mixture of science,...
In an earlier article, I covered the basics of yoga and healthy eating for better digestion. The ancients in India understood the connection between digestion and health and elucidated it through the science of Ayurveda. Modern scientific studies have shown the connection between gut health...
Are you interested in better balance, improved reaction time, sound memory, and emotional calmness? Through body-mind practices such as yoga, we strengthen all of these aspects of a healthy aging brain. The physical practice of yoga, known as asana, helps strengthen muscles that are weak (remember,...
The gut can tell us a lot. It has been more recently referred to as “the second brain,” a complex system of nerves and neurotransmitters that link to the gray matter in our head. The “second brain” provides gut instinct, that barometer for our instinctual...
Your feet, ankles, legs, knees, hips and sacrum (the wedge-shaped bone at the base of the spine) provide a base of support for moving, working, and playing. It’s when you start slip-sliding around on the ice that you come to appreciate strength, flexibility, tracking and...
Many people who have practiced other styles of yoga say that Viniyoga is different. You have to pay attention. You have to be aware. It's not the same sequence of postures every time or one size fits all yoga. There is active participation of attention...
“This season of the year grinds the very soul out of me. My nerves lose their tone, my teeth ache, and my courage falls to the bottomless bottom of infinitude.” - Henry Adams in a letter to Charles Milnes Gaskell, 1869 Are there days, weeks or months that...
My husband recently turned his own harvest of apples into crowd-pleasing apple bread (see recipe below) for one of my yoga retreats. It struck me how long the journey is for that wonderful apple bread. We can learn something for our journey in yoga from...
Life changes in an instant with a diagnosis of cancer. It’s like a big wave crashing through the house rearranging everything. How do you manage the big wave? The ancient science of yoga provides useful tools for coping with the diagnosis and treatments and supporting...
The other day I read something very "new-agey" about yoga. The author said that yoga is being, not doing. I immediately visualized the packing of my bags to trek to the Himalayas to meditate, to just be. It made me chuckle. Reality set it. It's rare...
Change in our life comes in many different ways. Sometimes we plan for the change. A retirement, career change or getting married are examples of things that we often consciously choose. And then some changes blow in like a strong wind taking with it any...